"That was sure a short day."

50 years ago, US Marine aviator turned NASA astronaut, John Glenn, squeezed his way into the Friendship 7 launch capsule, and a few nerve-wracking hours later, blasted off into space to become America's first astronaut to orbit the earth!

Mission Control

13 seconds into the launch, John Glenn thought it was "little bumpy along about here". This guy definitely had the right stuff!

The view from above!

The full radio transcripts can be found here: http://mercury6.spacelog.org/page/